Fractured Bond
by DarkPokemonLover
Summary: When they unknowningly messed with the plans of a large organization, a teenage girl and her umbreon must fight and learn to work together for their survival.
1. Fateful Encounter

_Author Note: Hello everyone! Here's the first chapter of a new tale from the author of Sparking Chaos. Well… new isn't really how I should describe it. In chapter 14 of Sparking Chaos, something happens. From there, I followed the route of the main character of that story. But, what if I followed the route of the other half of the group? Well, that's what this short story is about. Short, because chapters aren't going to be 5000 words monsters anymore. I think something around 2500 words each chapter will be a different change of pace. Also, short because there aren't going to be 20 chapters like SC._

_Now, before anyone read further, I want to warn you that this chapter is going to sum up the main events up to Chapter 13 of Sparktail Chaos. So, you had intended on reading the story of a man turned into a pikachu and struggling to keep his mind safe from his instincts and from himself, then you will assuredly have the main events of the story spoiled. However, did I keep the mention to the man/chu's state of mind to a minimum, because that's the real point of that story. But, if you don't plan to read that story or have already done so, then go ahead and enjoy this._

_By the way, I want to repeat that English is not my first language and that I am prone to typos. So please excuse the strange mistakes here and there. I tried to keep them to a minimum too, but I'm far from perfect._

**Chapter 1: Fateful Encounter**

On this planet, there are three kinds of people. There are the bad people, those egocentric and selfish individuals who only work toward their personal benefit. There are also the good people, who would give everything they have to make others around them happier, often at the price of their own well-being. Finally, there is a vast majority of people in-between, who do good and bad things, who fight their way through the obstacles fate has for them. Those people aren't known and aren't popular, but they make the world go around with their daily choices. The only thing those people want is their share of happiness, gotten through helping others and themselves to accomplish various goals.

Jen Sutter was one of those persons. The teenage girl had everything going for her: she was intelligent, had a fairly good body, both health-wise and in matter of attractiveness, and she was kind-hearted. She was a tad short, standing at only five feet and four inches, but her bright emerald eyes, her long light brown hair and her smile largely made up for that. However, instead of choosing to share her qualities with people around her, she decided to give to the pokémon of the world who needed help. That was why, instead of seeing this girl in towns, you saw her in the forests, where pokémon lived and sometime needed help. That was why she was hiding her attractive features behind a few kilos of hiking clothes, spiked boots and a heavy bag containing everything she needed to live. That was also why the unexpected fell upon her life.

The girl, born in Johto, had spent the first four years of her training career exploring her home land, spending more time helping and caring for the pokémon she met rather than actually battling. In fact, she had only two pokémon on her, one being her grass starter, a Meganium called Leafty. When she decided, at the age of 16, that she wanted to travel to Kanto to explore the region and eventually go to school to become a pokémon nurse, her father was enjoyed and wanted her to feel at home there. He had contacted Professor Samuel Oak about the possibility of giving his daughter a pokémon foreign to Johto. The professor, known for his researches and his liking for pokémon battling, gladly accepted the offer and prepared the perfect pokémon for the young trainer.

Before Jen could pick up her pokémon, an accident happened with one of the projects the old professor was collaborating to. The DX Project, nicknamed Project Ditto in honor of the famous shape shifting pokemon, was a secret experiment that began three year ago and aiming to reproduce, using nanotechnology, the shape shifting ability of Ditto. The experiment was promoted by the Kanto Army Forces and paid by private corporations, who saw opportunities of developing new weapons to strengthen Kanto position of power around this part of the world. Oak provided information about pokémon, the main test subjects for the experiment. His good friend William "Bill" Libovski, known for his technological advancements and his long term collaboration with Silph Co. to develop new models of pokeballs, was given the responsibility of building the prototype of the device in his new private laboratory build only for that purpose. It was in that lab that the tragic incident had happened.

Rick Tortoas, an intern working for Bill at the compound where the heart of his PC system was located, had impressed the scientist with his admirable skills with computer technology and his vast knowledge of pokémon. Although the intern was still young, he was seen as a great prospect for the future and Bill offered him the job of assistant for the Ditto Project. Unfortunately, things didn't exactly go as planned. Given the key to accessing the secret lab and impatient to know its secrets, Rick had decided to infiltrate the lab in the middle of the night to see by himself what this was all about. A stupid and immature decision, one would say, but if only it had been only that, things would have turned out better for everyone.

Inside that lab, Rick found the centerpiece of Project Ditto, the working prototype of a transformation machine. Working was a big overstatement, though. Although the first successful transformation had happened one year ago with little success rate, they had only involved transformation of pokémon into their younger selves, since the similarities in genetics increased the chances of success. Even if the success rate had increased since then to the point failures were rare, the machine still only allowed transformation into something smaller and had never officially been tested on humans. The effects of a transformation on the mind of an individual were still unknown and no one wanted to take any useless risks.

No one, until the curiosity of the young intern led him to enter the machine and to activate it on mistake. With no one around to stop the process, his fate was sealed. The brilliant but socially inapt intern ironically found himself waking up in the yellow fur coat of a Pikachu, species known for its heavy social lifestyle. When Bill found out about the transformation, he was disheartened and attempted to help Rick, but the former human had lost too much of his mind and needed special assistance to keep what was left of his mind intact until the machine was completed.

That's how Rick found himself at the other side of the region at Oak's ranch. As much Oak would have wanted to help the former human, he considered that keeping a strange acting pikachu around him for too long would be suspicious and that the best way to get rid of that little problem would be to give Rick to a trainer, where he would have known the joys of battle and eventually completely lose his mind. Since this wasn't the easiest and most ethical decision to take, Oak opted for a compromise: he would give Rick to the kindest pokémon trainer around, so he would live a good pokémon life. That's where Jen was unknowingly caught in a dangerous business.

Arriving in Pallet town to receive her promised pokémon, the girl had been the ideal candidate trainer for Rick. Along with her gift, a young Vulpix named Sunny, the teenage girl was also offered Rick, or rather Sparktail, as he was nicknamed back then, as a special gift. To explain Sparktail's intelligent behavior, Oak convinced the girl that the mouse had been found like this in the wild and that he was the main subject of an experiment aiming to understand just how brilliant he was. Since the girl was naturally gifted with pokémon, Oak believed that she would easily tame the unusual Pikachu. Proud of having been chosen for something this important, the girl left Pallet with her two new pokémon, unaware that she was now followed.

Since an incident of this nature couldn't stay hidden, Bill mentioned what had happened in his most recent advancement report on the project. Before he had let go of Rick, the scientist implanted a tracker chip in the rodent's head to know where he would be at any time. After getting word of the incident, one branch of the army decided that Rick would be a problem if he was to stay with a trainer and would endanger the secrecy of the project. Stealing the tracker's signal, they organized a pikachu hunt in Veridian forest, with the objective of capturing the mouse and his new trainer to silence them.

Jen, still oblivious to the bad omen hovering above her, reached Veridian Forest in no time and slowly became suspicious of her new rodent pokémon. It became obvious to her that had a better grasp of the world than any pokémon she had seen before, intelligent or not. When Rick tried to show her that he had been human, the witty girl caught on his distress signal and promised that she would help him. Using basic communication and a map of the region, the small group chose Cerulean as their next destination, the town where, according to Rick, they would find a way to help.

Before they could leave, another problem appeared to slow them down. Around their camp was lurking a large predator, seeking food desperately. The beast, a young umbreon named Kagai, was not in the best physical state. One week before, she had been an eevee playing innocently with her siblings, but on one fateful nightly excursion, she met with men in black who tried to take some blood sample from her. They succeeded in doing that, but in her tentative to escape, she evolved in an umbreon. This evolution should have been the greatest moment in her life, but her bubble of happiness was popped when she realized at the same time as her parents that she had taken the wrong evolution path. Her family, espeon for so far as the family line went, didn't hesitate to kick her out of the cave violently, leaving her injured and famished to fend off for herself.

When Kagai found the camp, her eyes became set on the tasty pikachu walking with the girl. She had tried to pounce on the rodent as soon he was alone, but this resulted in failure and her capture. Usually, Jen would have scared the predator away, but when she noticed the claws marks on the umbreon's side, she knew that the poor pokémon was alone and that she wouldn't survive out there. Again, Jen decided to temporarily take another pokémon under her care, until the vixen was strong enough to be released. It wasn't the first time the girl had done something like that and it wouldn't be the last.

After one week under the teen's care, Kagai had regained a lot of strength. Even if Jen didn't allow her to hunt the pikachu, she spent her time playing games with him and Sunny where he had the role of the prey, much to his dismay. During her short time with the human girl, Kagai had a few lessons about friendship and moral, but nothing would be quite as good as practical application of those teachings. Fate, in its twisted sense of logic and humor, made sure that those teachings would be applied. At the dawn of their ninth day together, the bond between a pokémon and its trainer would be tested like never before. Choices would have to be made and hard decisions taken. But in the end, there would be either a broken chain or a strengthened bond. Which one would it be? That… only Jen and Kagai could decide of it.


	2. Restrained Liberty

Author Note: Here's chapter 2 of this little story

_Author Note: Here's chapter 2 of this little story. For those don't know me well, I have responses to reviews on my blog. Just go in my profile and click on the homepage link. I did that to save a lot of space at the beginning of chapters. Enjoy your reading._

**Chapter 2: Restrained Liberty**

For most, night is a moment of peace, a time where you only have to relax and move along the pleasant flow of dreams. Of course, most people also happen to be humans, a species that does most of its activities during daytime. When you are a nocturnal creature, the concept of day and night isn't quite the same for you.

Kagai knew that too much. The large three feet tall predatory vixen was in a situation that was unnatural. In order to follow the rhythm of her new trainer, she had to be awake during the day and sleeping during the night. This was something her body wasn't quite able to follow. While humans were able to switch their hours of sleep around without too much negative effects, most pokémon didn't have this capacity for adaptation. Their hours of sleep were hardwired in their brain and going against them meant a lot of trouble. It was around 4AM and her body wanted her outside this strange nest made of plastic to hunt some preys while it was still dark enough for her to do so, but after a long day of training, she had no desire actually do so. This disagreement between her instincts and her true desires resulted in an unwanted effect she experienced every night. Every hour, she would wake up full of energy and ready to hunt. Each time, she had to stop, force herself back to sleep and wait until she would wake up again to repeat the process. During the day, it was the opposite. Every hour, she would feel a strong urge to lie down and sleep. This second set of urges was much harder to ignore with the taunting presence of the sun and she often found herself falling asleep during the day.

Jen had advised her about the problems this style of life could bring and had asked her a few times to act like she should, but Kagai was stubborn. It wasn't so much that she didn't really want to do that, but her new life was during the day. It was when the sun was high that she could play with her new friend Sunny and annoy the mouse. Despite having the body of an adult, Kagai still had the heart of a child and was reluctant to let it go. In the wild, she would have had no choice, but here she was treated like a child. Jen was giving her the food she needed without having to hunt and she had new friends. To her, the situation wasn't any different of being with her mother and playing with her siblings. Jen was her new mother, in a way. And like any child, Kagai had to be disobedient and to stand her ground.

So there she was, at 4AM, looking tiredly at the entrance of the tent as it was being closed. As usual, the stupid mouse had decided to do something lacking common sense and plain annoying. He was currently leaving the tent for some random nonsensical reason and she had nothing more to do than watching him leave. She did try to convince him not to do that, but that pikachu couldn't listen to logic to fight his way out of a box; he was a lost cause. Little did she know that, for once, the pikachu had been right to act like a madman.

Once the rodent was out of sight, the umbreon closed her eyes and tried to find that eluding sleep. As much she wanted to go back to that peaceful realm, it was impossible for her to ignore the various scents tickling her nose. They were everywhere. There were the body odors of her trainer and her fiery little friend sleeping nearby, the scents of the grass, of the trees, of the little critters outside, of the... the…

Kagai eye's widened as the new scent of humans reached her nose. Nervously, she listened for any movement outside. As expected, the faint noise of people walking around the tent was heard. It would have escaped any human ear, but she wasn't exactly human. Instinctively, she rose on her paws and glared at the entrance. Like a guard dog, she was ready to pounce on anything going through the door to protect herself and others. The zipper did move and a small opening was made, but it wasn't a human that stepped in. Instead, was thrown inside a small cylindrical tube making a strange sound. Thinking this was the actual threat, Kagai pounced and caught it in her jaws before it touched the ground. Then… she bit hard on it.

Big mistake. The container was filled with a powerful sleeping gas and, as soon Kagai pierced it, it was many times the recommended dose of gas that burst into her mouth, down her throat and inside her lungs. Instantly, the toxic substance was absorbed into her bloodstream and was brought to her brain. It didn't kill her, but she didn't even have time to realize what was happening that she collapsed on the floor, unconscious. The canister rolled out of her loosened jaws and continued to spit out its nasty content.

The umbreon was down for the count, but all this noise awoke Jen. The girl gasped when she saw that the tent was filled with some kind of grey smoke. Her first reaction was to think that a fire had been lit in forest. Not wasting any time, she covered her mouth and her nose, picked up Sunny and made her way out of the tent. She would have picked up Kagai on her second trip or recalled her had getting her to move been impossible. Sadly, she didn't have time for any of that.

As soon she stepped out of the tent, she was greeted by a stinging sensation on her neck. Surprised and hurt, she dropped the little vulpix and probed her neck for anything wrong. It was with a shaking hand that she pulled out a dart from her neck. She tried to examine it, but her body had become limp and standing up was straining her. Coughing a bit from the traces of gas inside her lungs, she sat in the grass and looked up groggily. The last thing she saw before she falling unconscious was pairs of green and red eyes looking down at her…

--

Sergeant Stemper was pleased. At long last, his mission was over, but it wasn't a total success. Their main target, the pikachu, had escaped them. They searched the woods for a few hours, capturing two pikachu, but none bore the mark they were looking for. Nevertheless, they had the girl knocked out and tied up in the truck and pokeballs containing all of her pokémon and those two pikachu. The last thing he needed to be out of this was to get dismissed. This was why he was sitting on a comfortable chair in the office of the general who gave him his mission, calmly waiting for him to finish speaking. "…wasn't the best accomplishment in your career. You let the pikachu go and brought us those two useless rats. We had expected more from you, Stemper. However…"

Reaching under his desk, the highly graded man picked up a small square device he hid in the palm of his right hand. He then rose from his seat and moved his right arm across the desk for a handshake. "…we have appreciated the little you have done for us. Good job." The man kept the palm of his hand hidden, a small smirk creeping up his mouth. He knew that Stemper wouldn't notice those small suspicious details, so much he was too eager to leave on another duty.

As predicted, the sergeant did attempt the handshake, but as soon his hand touched the two tiny electrodes on the device, it was a new whole deal. A surge of electricity flew across his body, reaching for the vital organs. When his brain was touched, it shutdown and slowed down everything in his body as a safety measure against electricity. Stamper screamed in pain and felt a strong pain in his heart before his eyes closed. Next time he would open them, things would be different for him. Letting go of the hand, the general looked at the limp body and snickered. "Once again, good job. You did so well that the boss decided to give you a promotion. You will love your new assignment. There's nothing better for disobedient little soldiers than a training course with the dogs of your kind."

--

Hours passed like a flash for Jen. The last thing she remembered was seeing those colored and inhuman eyes. Now… she had no idea where she was. She was sitting down on something soft, but there was something hard and uncomfortable under it. The teenage girl tried to move, but her hands were tied together, as were her legs. Those restrains didn't fell right, and they weren't the only things to be restrained. It felt like her whole body was in a place too small for her. Her back was arched and pushing against another solid wall, feeling as uncomfortable as it was under her. The same was true for her legs and feet, which were resting against the front wall. This box or whatever she was in couldn't be larger than three feet in height and length.

Worried about her well being, Jen opened her eyes to look around. Indeed, it seemed that she was in some kind of "box", though the right word probably would have been "cage". To make things worse, she wasn't the only person in such a small cage. On the other side of the room, a few feet away from her, were two men in similar cages. One of them was aged around thirty and wearing a military uniform. As for the other one, he must have been in his forties and was wearing a white lab coat. The scientist was the only one awake and he was looking down without any emotion on his face, as if he knew what was going on.

He girl was tempted to ask the man about this place, but her priorities were elsewhere at the time. Taking a glance around the room, she noticed that it was unguarded. The room itself was small and looked more like a storage room than a jail. Boxes, of any sizes and pierced with holes, were filling the room. Those were the kind of crate to hold living creatures. If anything, she was lucky to be in a cage and not in one of those crates. At least, she did have some light, here.

Her sharp eyes also found a security camera moving left and right to probe the room. If she was able to get out this cage and walk past the camera, she would be on her way to freedom. Fortunately for her, the cord binding her didn't look very solid. Knowing that breaking it would be easy, she bit onto the cord tying her hands together and start to break it, a few fibers at a time.

The man in a white coat looked at her attempt for escape and shook his head. Another one was trying to do the impossible. He had seen so many try it and fail. He even tried to help one that looked particularly sympathetic, but the only thing it did was to bring him here. He would let her waste her time for now though, because exhausted people always had been easier to talk to.

It didn't take too much time before it happened. At first, Jen had seemed to be doing good. She had undone the bond on her hands and used them to untie herself. This, unfortunately, had been as far as she could go. She had tried to unlock the cage or to break it somehow, but everything had failed. This cage was too solid to break without tools and the lock was too complex to unpick with what she had, not that she had great unpicking skills, anyway. After she had kicked the cage to the point she was breathing harshly, the man decided it was time for him to speak. "You are wasting your time." he told the girl a in deep, but nervous sounding voice. "There is no way out of here once you enter. Even for employee. This is what I call the death row."

The girl shuddered and kicked the cage once more in frustration and fear. Whatever was going on here, it was scaring her. The question she had on her mind was about knowing who was behind this and why they had kidnapped her. Her thoughts were also drifting to her pokémon. She hoped that they were alright. But with her survival being on the line, the questions she asked were more related to the terrifying things the man had said. "What do you mean, even employee? Who are you? Are they going to kill us? Why would someone do something like that? It's inhuman!"

Her shouts echoed across the room, making the other man stir up in his sleep. Those new movements didn't bother the scientist, who answered the same questions he heard many times before. "No, they aren't actually going to kill us. I was working here until I tried to help someone to escape, tired of all this. They apparently didn't like it and decided to get rid of me. This isn't going to kill you, but imagine the worst nightmare you can think about. Then, imagine that this nightmare is going to haunt you every single second for the rest of your life. This is what is going to happen. Nope… you are not going to die… but after they will be done playing with us, you will wish that you were. And, you know what's worse in all that? They aren't going to let you kill yourself. Only they can decide who live or die here, like gods. Welcome to hell."


	3. New Home

_Author Note: Hello! Here's Chapter 3! As usual, the latest review responses are on my blog. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 3: New Home**

Jen's heart sank. The man's words seemed harsh but sincere. If she had to make a guess, with one of those guys being a scientist and the other a soldier, she probably would be part of some weird experiment for the army. Although she had no idea yet about what it would involve, she was now convinced that she wouldn't walk out of here unharmed, wherever "here" was. She had heard rumors about Kanto's army not being the best when it came to the quality of life of its soldiers, but… kidnapping innocent people to torture them? What kind of weird region Kanto was? What kind of conspiracy was this? Was there too many trainers or something? Could it be…

Could it be because her pikachu was a former human? She didn't have a lot of knowledge about the world of conspiracies, but common sense told her that someone turned in a pikachu wasn't something that was supposed to happen. By having been in contact with a former human, there was a huge possibility that she might learn about this kind of experiment, like she effectively had. They probably just wanted to get her out of the way before she talked.

Realizing that this probably was the reason she was kept here, Jen thought about asking the man if he knew anything related to that kind of experiment, but she was aware that she had to subtle about it. If they were to know that she knew anything, they might be quicker to make her suffer whatever fate they had in mind for her faster or torture her for answers. She had to approach the subject indirectly.

Looking down sadly, the girl closed her eyes, giving off the impression she was giving up. "I see… I guess it's going to be something horrible and that will hurt a lot." she muttered out loud, adding a few fake sobs to it. "Why can't people try fun experiments, for once? I don't know… something that would let some people be happy or experience something new." Smiling a little, she took a joyous tone, as if she was feeling nostalgic. "You know, Mr. Employee, I am a pokémon trainer. I explored the land and met many friendly pokémon. I have often wondered how it would feel to be a pokémon, to be one of those happy little bundles of joy. Wouldn't it be a wonderful experience?"

The teenage girl moved her head up to stare at the man again, taking one second to replace her hair before smiling brightly. It was a smile reflecting a lot of innocent and optimist, full of youthful energy. To make the illusion realistic, Jen thought about the past and all those good moments she had shared with her pokémon, but it didn't last long. Her smile faded away when her mind drifted into darker themes. She began to think about the fact she might never see her pokémon again and that there would be no more of those wonderful moments, and this was making her sad again. Fortunately, she had gotten the wanted reaction before the man could notice her change of mood.

The man had looked at her in disbelief and shock. To him, that girl was crazy and had no idea what she was talking about. Becoming a pokémon was far from being a "wonderful experience", as she had so innocently stated it. However, he wasn't a bad man and he didn't want to pop her bubble. If this trainer wanted to believe that being a pokémon was a good thing, then he wouldn't disappoint her. "Then you are going to be happy, Miss Trainer. In a few hours or a few days, we are all going to be pokémon! We are all going to be 'bundles of joys' doing exciting things for our nice new masters! You are going to enjoy the training they have in mind for us. You are going to enjoy the pain. You are going to enjoy being a slave. But, it's alright, because your dream is going to come true! Yay, Miss Crazy-in-her-head!"

He glared at the girl with anger in his eyes. He had started on a nice fake happy tone, but his fear for what is going to happen won over him and slowly turned his words into sarcasm and insults. Now that this had come out, he wasn't very proud about what he had done, not that anyone would care at this point. He had never wanted to be in here and to work for this project. But like everyone, he did it for money. The job easily paid three or four times more than any other job on the market, but he had known since the beginning that he had signed a pact with the devil. His greed had signed for him, but it was his heart that had to suffer seeing those deaths, seeing the panic in all those poor persons as they learned what would happen to them, then how they slowly went insane once the process was over. By signing this contract, he became a monster… but now he would literally be one. Maybe he had deserved it… "Sorry… I just have seen too much pain. It scares me when I know exactly what is going to happen. I understand the psychology of the DX more than anyone else. I was charged of studying the effects of the transformation on the mind of those individuals. It was my job to find a way to control those pokémon without losing the gain in intelligence they have. Sorry if this sounds sudden… but I guess you are probably just happier than before by knowing that you will be a pokémon…"

The man had looked away from Jen to ignore her bright smile, but what he had actually missed was the girl sinking deeper back in her cage and her face turning blank and unemotional. Unlike what she had tried to make him believe, this didn't feel like anything good. Her life would never be the same…not only she had lost her freedom and her friends, but she would lose her humanity. They would strip away from her the last thing that made her unique. There would be no more training career, no more dream of being a nurse. But there would be one thing they wouldn't take away from her. "Maybe, but they are never going to control me. Even if its kill me, I will never bow to their will."

--

In another area of the compound, Kagai wasn't having it easy either with her new situation. If was thing was good, it was that she could hardly complain about her new nest. Compared to Jen's uncomfortable little cage, the room the umbreon had been released into a few hours ago was quite charming. Not only the room was large, with its surface of 50 feet by 100 feet, but it was filled with small trees, rocks and some grass. Most of this wasn't real, but it did give her the feeling of being at home. It was, however, the only good thing about this place.

The main problem was the lack of preys. A quick survey of the area had revealed that the only inhabitants in here were predators like her. It would be a good thing if she was trying to find a mate, but food was higher on her priority list at the moment. Another problem was that, among those predators, a few were rather incompatible with her. The worse one probably was that Persian who called her weak. Actually, the cat was calling everyone like that, but he had a certain dislike for the canine kind that had made the insult toward Kagai seem worse.

Finally, biggest problem she had with this place was that she had no idea how she came here and how to get out. When she had been released from the pokeball, she was still knocked out by the effects of the toxic gas and it took her some time to wake up. The last thing she remembered was humans attacking her and now she was in this strange new place. The dark pokémon wasn't stupid; even if this room tried to simulate a real forest, she could still touch the edges and notice they had no opening into the great outdoors. Her new room might look nice, but it was still a trap. If something tried to attack her, she would have no place to hide. When there would be nothing to eat and that they would all have killed each others for food, there would be nowhere else to look for it. She was trapped in here with no way to get more resources once everything would be gone. This was making the vixen very nervous. At least, there was one redeeming point to all of this…

"Kagai! Are you going to play, now? I have been waiting for you to wake up for sooo long! It's not as fun when we are playing without you!" shouted the excited voice of a small and young female vulpix. Sunny had wasted no time to think about the reasons that could explain her stay here. The only thing she cared about having a lot of new friends to play with. Eventually, she would worry about the absence of Jen if food didn't come her way, but she wasn't that hungry for now.

The umbreon looked in the direction of Sunny and sighed. This "we" the vulpix had mentioned, it was the presence of a small brown fox next to the vixen. The pokémon was cute, with his light brown mane, his large fluffy tail and his eyes full of happiness, but to Kagai, it felt like having her heart pierced. Of all the pokémon there could have been in here, there had to an eevee. As if being trapped in a room with unwelcoming pokémon without food wasn't enough, there had to be someone to remind her about her forced evolution and her ruined childhood. "That's great, Sunny… but I don't feel like playing anymore. Have fun with your new friend."

Frustrated, the young umbreon turned around and decided to focus her energy on something more constructive than playing games. Leaving the two disappointed foxes behind, she headed toward the edge and sniffed it. It had a weird scent making her a bit dizzy, so she traded her sense of smell for her sense of sight. The edge was covered in trees and grass, but was completely uniform and plane. Those trees were obviously fakes too, but if they had entered this forest, there had to be a way out somewhere. It was probably just hidden somewhere around. She had quickly looked around once, but this time she would look more closely.

Following the edge, she walked around half of the room before finding something that stood out from the rest. There was a tiny crack in the edge and air flowed through it. The crack reached high in the edge, became a horizontal line before heading down into the ground again, the whole thing looking like a large rectangle. If the exit was somewhere, it could only be there, behind the crack. Lifting her right front paw, she scratched the crack with her sharp claws, leaving marks in the metallic surface.

Outside the room, in a small security room, two employees were supervising the pokemon habitats and making sure no accident happened. One of them, noticing Kagai scratching at the door on one of the cameras, classified this action as being potentially harmful. Since those rooms served as a way to observe newly captured pokémon to determine the kind of experiment or training that would be the more appropriate for them, the pokemon couldn't be aware yet that humans were keeping them prisoner. To distract Kagai away from the door, he opened a hatch in the ceiling, making two pounds of meat fall behind the predatory pokémon. The piece of meat was covered in more blood there should be on it, but this happened to be the first step of the training. The more blood they gave a pokémon, the more they would crave it. When training time would come, this would prove to be a powerful asset in making the pokémon do exactly what they needed them for.

Kagai wasn't a fool, but the sudden appearance of such a tasty treat did remind her that there was no food here and that this could very well be her only chance to get some. Fearing that someone else could try to steal the meat from her, she picked it up in her jaws and hid behind the closest rock to have it all for herself. She wouldn't eat it all, but while she would eat it, she didn't want to be bothered.

Hungrily, the vixen took big bites into the soft piece of meat, letting the blood flow slowly on her tongue to enjoy its wonderful taste. It would taste bitter and awful to a human, but to the vixen it was like drinking from the best wine. It was both great and intoxicating, each drop making her want more and more, so much that she stopped midway to lap all up of the red liquid before going back to making a short work of the meat.

Once she had eaten her fill, she licked her chops and stared at the remaining piece, wondering what to do with it. Since she couldn't eat it now and hiding it would be difficult, someone else would need to eat it very soon. If she had to share her prey with anyone, she didn't have a lot of options. In fact, she only had one. Taking the small piece in her jaws again, she walked back to the area where Sunny and the eevee were playing and dropped the meat near them, in plain sight. "I found a prey nearby and I thought that you might like it. It's for both of you."

The sight of the meat made the two kits stop playing and rush on it. Each of them gripped on a side and playful pulled on their half in an attempt to get more of it. Satisfied, Kagai laid down near them to watch them play and eat. The umbreon might still be not be at ease around the eevee, but it was a maternal instinct to feed young ones and it made her feel better about the eevee. She might not have found the way out of this edged forest yet, but at least she had found a way to get food. If pawing at the crack always brought a prey, they wouldn't die of hunger. This should give them enough time to escape. Until her next try, she would check on Sunny to ensure her safety and, if her mood got better, maybe she would play a game with her and her friend. When she would be ready to explore again, she would. Until then, there was nothing wrong about taking it slow, was it?


	4. Lost Authority

Chapter 4: Lost Identity

_Author notes: Hello! I have nothing to say today, other than this chapter is filled with a lot of surprise stuff, for its size. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 4: Lost Authority**

The next few hours had not been boring for the occupants of the cages in the storage room. After the soldier had waken up and that everyone had gotten over the initial shock of knowing what would probably happen to them, they used those hours to learn a bit more about each other. For a while, they looked more like people participating to a group therapy rather than people held prisoner against their will, though interesting similarities could probably have been found between the two situations. From this, Jen learned a lot more than she had wanted to.

The scientist was Georges Liberman. The man was specialized in the study of the human brain and of the effects of mental disorders on it. Six months before, he had been approached by a member of a powerful corporation to help them understand and possibly fix the damages of a unique kind of mental disorder. After they had shown him the DX Project, he agreed on helping them, wanting those transformed people to feel better until it was possible for them to reverse the transformation. After a few weeks here, he had to face the sad reality: his employer didn't want the victims of transformation to be healed, but to mold their mind to make them the perfect tools of war. With intelligent pokémon under their control, their power would be amplified tenfold. After all, who would suspect a mouse or a cat to have bad intents? At this point though, the man was tied by his contract and feared what would happen if he tried to break any clause. Liberman tried to proceed to his daily tests until he would reach their goal and be free to leave this job, but his guilt became too much to ignore. Two days before, he cracked and tried to help someone to flee before she was transformed and… The rest was history. He was captured and brought here to be given the same punishment than the one he had failed to prevent.

As for the soldier, his story had touched Jen more personally. His name was Micheal Stemper, sergeant of the second infantry of Kanto military. Hero of a recent mission opposing the army to a branch of Team Rocket that had recently been discovered, he had been given an assignment a bit out of the ordinary. His task was to capture, for no apparent reason, a seemingly innocent girl and her pikachu. He had thought the whole thing to be fishy, but he could hardly have refused an order from a superior. He had done the job like wanted and… There he was, tied in the same room as the one he was ordered to capture. It was ironic, but the soldier agreed that he should have gone with his guts and refused the task, no matter the punishment he would have received for that treason. Now, it was a bit too late for regrets.

Jen had been angry at first at Stemper for capturing her, but she had calmed herself after a few minutes. They weren't all that different. All of them had been tricked one way or another by someone who had something against them. The question it left was: Who? After hours of waiting and random talk about a variety of subjects to calm everyone and to make them forget about their fate momentarily, they finally got an insight on the answer.

As they were talking about something of little importance, the three of them were interrupted by the loud sounds the automatic metallic door leading outside made while it was electronically unlocked and opened. From this door entered a figure familiar to two of them, followed by two guards. Instead of wearing his formal white and yellow uniform designating him as a general of the Kanto Forces, he was wearing a black uniform with two red stripes on each shoulder. The front of his uniform was devoid of any particular decoration, making the set of clothing look rather simple. It was hard, however, not to know the signification of the R sewed under his right shoulder, over his heart. "It's an honor for me to see so many traitors in same room, waiting anxiously for their fair punishment, starting by you, sergeant."

The man calmly walked in front of the cage holding the poor soldier, only giving a passing glance at the other two prisoners. Shocked, Stemper looked up at the man with disgust and rage on his face. "How dare you soil the integrity of our army? You are a --" Stemper shouted at the other man, using almost every curse and insult there was to describe how foul of a man the general was. When he was done with the shouting, Stemper glared at the general, knowing perfectly well that nothing he had said would change anything to his fate. But darn, it felt good.

The general paced back and forth in front of the cage, taking a confident smirk as he spoke as calmly as before, not shaken at all by the insults. He had expected that too much. "Done, now? Good. It was a great accomplishment you did in Celadon. Your regiment captured 34 of our members and killed 8. It was acclaimed in all Kanto as the greatest coup against the most dangerous terrorist group in the country. It was really nice of you. Those fools in Celadon were pawns. Useless. But you know, we don't take kindly aggression against us. When something is done against the organization, somebody has to pay. Since you can't pay us back the damage caused with your pocket money, we thought that helping us with our own militia should suffice as a payback. We are lacking good guard dogs around here. You will make a fine Poochyena. After some rigorous training, you could become the strongest Mightyena around. Who know, if you do good enough, you may be promoted to being one of Giovanni's guard dog. Think about the honor."

He man snickered and stopped in front of the cage containing Liberman. His speech was much shorter this time. "Mister Liberman, how nice it is to see you again. Fist of all, I must thank you for the services you have provided Team Rocket and we hope that you will enjoy the rest of your stay within our walls. Since you were so nice with our experiments, we thought of a perfect new job for you. From now on, you will be the new lab rattata. The woman replacing you will take great care of you. I will personally make sure that she gives you the best cheese there is if you are cooperating. I am convinced that you won't want to make the mistake of disobeying us twice. Even the dumbest rat learns from its mistakes."

Satisfied by the look of terror on the face of the doomed scientist, the man turned to face Jen, his smirk turning into a grin. "As for you, Miss Sutter… It will be a shame to lose someone as… physically gifted as you. However, like I said, when we are attacked, somebody must pay. Not only Mister Tortoas have caused us trouble in the past, but he managed to escape once again, even as a measly pikachu. I would punish our friend Stemper here for his incompetence, but as you saw, he already has his reason to be punished. Since Mister Tortoas will end up as a wild pikachu in the middle of nowhere or dead and is not able to be punished, it leaves only you. You will be enjoyed to know that, since the mouse escaped our grasp, that you are going to take his place as our titular pikachu hostage. The expression "Like trainer, like pokémon" will never have been so true."

Silently, the man returned at the entrance of the room and gave a quick glance at everyone before heading out. "You will be taken to the machine soon. Once there… we expect you to act kindly to everyone you will meet. You will all be part of Team Rocket, after all." With this parting message, he left the room, followed by the two guards. The door was shut, leaving the three lost souls alone to think about their destiny.

Jen couldn't believe it. After everything she did to help pokémon, she would end up being a small pikachu. Although she didn't want to think any ill of the species Rick had become, for the man was probably scared and trapped in that body somewhere in the woods, there could have been many more useful pokémon to be. A pikachu could walk on two paws, but not move very fast while doing that. It could grab things with its front paws like a human would, making it more human than any other rodent pokémon, but the fact remained that she would only be a rodent. Something bigger and more able to defend itself would have been better. Though, it probably didn't really matter. Instead of thinking about how things could have been better, she would spend the rest of the time she had in this body to plan how she would escape in that new body or at least make those men pay for trying to make her a member of a criminal organization.

Despite having a lot of time, it had been almost impossible for her to plan anything. Stemper and Liberman were the firsts to leave the room. Both were shot again with tranquilizers darts to facilitate their transport into the experimenting lab, where their bodies were dragged into two different transformation machines. The devices were similar to the prototype made by Bill, but smaller. The central pod where the person would be transformed was exactly the same, but the two devices shared the same huge build, which basically contained a nanobot factory and computers to control the behavior of the machines and the production of nanobots to guarantee a safe transformation.

Before starting the machine, Jen's cage was lifted and brought in the same room to be placed in front of the device. With no way to move, she would be forced to watch the transformation anytime she opened her eyes. According to the supervisor, this was supposed to be a good way for Jen to be entertained while she waited 12 hours for her turn to come. To Jen, it would be more like a torture session. She tried to think about a plan, but it became hard for her not to glance at the pods when the first patch of fur appeared on the men. It was a weird feeling to know that she couldn't help them and that she would be the next to be sleeping in one of those pods. Seeing those changes made her imagine the same thing happening on her body, but with yellow fur and mouse features instead of rat and dog ones.

Eventually, watching this horror happening before her eyes took a toll on her and she fell asleep for a while. When she woke up again, a few hours later, the creatures lying in the pods didn't look human, but weren't pokémon either. One looked like a large rattata with half a human face and distorted legs and the other like a werewolf that would have been mutilated. Disgusted, the young woman quickly closed her eyes again and tried to return to the safety of her world of dreams, but she was too stressed for that. Minutes felt like hours as she switched between watching the creatures change, staring at the room and trying to sleep. This seemingly endless torture lasted four hours, at the end of which nothing remained of the men in the pods, other than piles of clothes and two unconscious pokémon.

The soft buzzing noise of the machine stopped and new people went inside the room to pick up the pokémon. None of the employees wore the Team Rocket uniform, but she had noticed that most of them wore a red ring on their right hand. The rare persons who didn't have it seemed to be somewhat tensed, as if they suspected something was wrong in this lab. They mostly were new employees, unaware that the military base had slowly been overtaken by the criminal organization in the last two years. Like the former employees, they would one day be too curious or wary and either become be part of Team Rocket or be "fired".

As soon the former humans had been brought out of the room, a soldier pointed his gun at the girl, who glared at him. "If you are going to strip me of my humanity, it would be nice to at least have the decency to let me walk into that thing myself. You can't refuse a last request, can you?" she asked the soldier with a harsh voice. The soldier kept his gun pointed at Jen and took a few steps back, then nodded at one of the scientists. The man in a white coat unlocked and opened the cage then cowardly stood away from it. Sighing, the girl crawled out of her small confinement and stretched her legs and arms under the watchful eyes of the soldier. He was placed at good distance from Jen to ensure that he would have time to shoot her if attempted any escape.

Knowing that escaping was impossible, Jen glanced at everyone in the room with a glare that could have killed. The soldier brought his finger closer to the trigger in response, but he didn't get to shot her. Taking a relaxed posture, the girl walked into the pod calmly and turned around as the glass door closed behind her. Normally, when someone entered this pod while being awake, there would have been screams, pounding on the door and crying, but Jen didn't want them to have the last laugh. She stood still with her body perfectly straight and her arms along her sides. Her face had a mocking smile and she made sure that everyone looking at the pod could see it. She tried to stay like this for a few minutes, but she soon felt the same lack of coordination than the time she had been hit by that dart. Knowing that her seconds were counted, she used her last moment of awareness to smirk and say, in a taunting voice. "Chu."


	5. Vicious Hunt

Chapter 5: Vicious Hunt

_Author notes: I have less and less to say in those… maybe I should bring back the review responses instead of putting them on my blog. Umm… naw, they take too much place. I think I will just wish you a fun reading again. It's not like anyone complained about the way I do it, anyway._

**Chapter 5: Vicious Hunt**

Kagai was lying down comfortingly under a small tree and watching pokémon play or wait for food. As she had noticed over the last two days, things here were strange. Every pokémon was either trained or a strong wild one. Wild pokémon never talked much with the others and stayed hidden in their corner. When food came from the ceiling, most of them fought over it, even if there was more than enough to satisfy everyone. Only a few ones waited calmly until the others were done fighting to eat the rest.

With trained pokémon, it was rather the opposite. Pokémon of different species often played and ate together. Most didn't seem to mind their situation, thinking that this place was like a large playroom where they could have fun until their trainer returned. Things weren't perfect though. The more they ate of that meat, the more ravenously they ate it when it appeared. Even a nice pokémon like Sunny was now digging and biting into the meat like if it was a prey to torture and kill. Sharing food was becoming harder and would have been impossible if Kagai hadn't been there to calm things down.

The umbreon was in her own category. Being a wild pokémon that wasn't quite actually trained, but who felt a great deal of compassion toward the trainer who had saved her life, she didn't quite buy this simulated environment. It was nice, but she would have prefered things to be like before. She didn't want things to change, because those times with Jen had been the only moments she had found happiness and comfort as an umbreon. She brought the meat to Sunny and Oran only because there was nothing else to eat, but she cut it in three parts and forbid them from touching the parts that weren't theirs. Sunny listened because she trusted her friend and Oran…

Well, the little eevee had changed a bit since Kagai first came in. She hated him at first because he was an eevee that was having fun while she couldn't do that anymore, but she quickly got used to the presence of the little fox. As she had learned, Oran was about the same age as her and ready to evolve. The kit was only waiting for a stone or some sign from his trainer to know when to do it. This changed things a lot in her mind. Oran wasn't only a kit, but a potential mate, if she could get him to evolve soon. To help him reach that goal, she was giving him more food than she gave to Sunny and she was taking extra care of him.

Right now, Oran was lying down near Kagai and cuddling against her. It was pretty early in the morning and he preferred the warmth of Kagai's body to playing with rocks and sticks. Unlike Kagai, he didn't quite get the concept of mating, but he knew that she was a good friend and that evolving was something they both wanted him to do. At the moment, he saw Kagai more as being a protector or a big sister, but he knew instinctively that it would change very soon. The problem he had been having was to choose what to evolve into. Kagai had suggested Umbreon, but it wasn't quite what he wanted to be. Having been born in the region of Sinnoh and having stayed there during most of his short life, he knew more about the eeveelutons native from there and he wanted to be a Glaceon. This would have been a subject of disagreement between Kagai and him, had they talked about it, so he stayed silent and only said he wasn't sure about when to evolve.

Those worries about evolving quickly melt away when Sunny joined the two other foxes to play. Playing with stuff alone was boring, but playing with a friend was much more interesting. The eevee nuzzled Kagai to say goodbye and ran after Sunny to play. Even if Kagai had wanted to join in, her role was to protect them from the other predators. The lack of any grown-up to protect Sunny had forced her to reluctantly take up that role. This role was sinking into her, making her desire to play duller every day. It was only her mentality adapting to the situation and her body starting to work like it was made to be used. The last traces of the child within her were blown away like dust and replaced with the proper thought mechanisms needed for the survival of her protégé. The change had been made slowly and Kagai had not even noticed it, being how things were supposed to be. Her life was everything it was supposed to be, minus the comforting presence of her trainer. And she was happy.

Something, or rather someone, was bent on challenging the calm life in the predator habitat. The first phase of the experiment with this batch of pokémon was completed. The creatures had learned to be real predators and to crave the desire to kill and it was now time to put this to practice. With the press of a button, two large doors hidden in the wall receded in it and slid open. The noise alerted every pokémon in the habitat and they all looked at the growing opening with a mix of fear, curiosity or anxiousness, depending on who and what they were.

Fearing for the safety of the two kits under her charge, Kagai rushed to position herself between the opening and the two pokémon. Once the doors were open, a few pokémon walked through the opening curiously while the others stayed behind, too scared to move or, in Kagai's case, too busy telling the kits that it could be dangerous to go there. She did a good job at doing that until one of the pokémon that went in returned with a freshly killed rattata in its jaws. At this moment, it became impossible to contain anyone in this room. After a night without food, nobody could resist the appeal of the preys waiting beyond the opening, including Kagai.

The umbreon ordered Sunny and Oran to follow behind her and stay close, because they would walk into the unknown to get food and it could be dangerous. The three pokémon followed the crowd into the opening. Large at first, the tunnel narrowed to become a small passage shaped like an S. Once they reached the exit, they entered a room similar to the one they had been trapped in before, with one major difference: it was filled with at least fifty rattata running away for their life as they were pursued by hungry predators coming from everywhere.

With playfulness and hunger in their eyes, the two kits spotted a rat and began to give it chase. Kagai tried to follow them, but her hungry was getting the best of her and turned her attention to the numerous rodents in the room. With so many preys here and the edges preventing them from leaving, she would finally be able to capture a moving prey without much trouble. Spotting a potential prey hiding behind a bush, she pounced at full speed at it, but it was faster than she was and avoided being pounced, leaving Kagai lying down in the grass. Disappointed, she probed the room with her eyes to find anything else, but her ears were the first to catch something.

"Umbra!?" shouted a confused voice behind the umbreon. The dark beast looked behind her and saw something much more appetizing than a rat. It was a pikachu, trapped in some kind of clear plastic box. The box was covered in claws marks, but nothing had pierced through it. It was intended to be that way, because that box didn't contain a regular pikachu, but DX-135, nicknamed Softpaw. It was only in some lost official documents that she was known as Jennifer Sutter. While the predators were being trained for hunting, Jen was having a training of her own.

After the transformation, she had woken up in this special plastic box, made to prevent any electrical attack from leaving and solid enough to resist most kind of physical blows. The box had no air hole, but was fed in oxygen by a system located at the bottom of the box. It worked by being inserted into a socket, as it was right now. As soon she had woken up, a scientist explained to her that she would receive training destined to make her cooperate with them. Since she had become a small prey pokémon, they wanted her to see what would happen if she disobeyed. She was told that some of the prey pokémon she would see were former humans, but she didn't believe that. She had seen too many families of those small purple mice to be tricked by such a fallacious statement. None of those pokémon acted any different at the sight of a predator, none had displayed any kind of advanced intelligence. If someone had been sent here to be killed for having been disobedient, it would have been easy to identify them. Beside, at the slow rate they had transformed her and judging by the number 135 she was given, there probably weren't enough DX to waste them like this.

This said, the shock of being in a new body had severely decreased her ability to stay calm and logical. When the pokémon attacked the cage in a vain attempt to get to her and that their sharp claws were swiped less than one inch from her in an unleashed rage, she had done like any pikachu and retreated at the far end of the box. It had taken a few failed attempts before she realized that nothing would kill her because of the box, but once she did, she sat and smiled innocently at anything trying to attack her. The wild pokémon didn't think anything of that and attacked until they got bored, but the trained pokémon had looked at her confusingly before finding something easier to eat.

Kagai's reaction was more alike to the one of a wild pokémon. She attacked the box and tried to bite the top off to get the tasty morsel, but it didn't budge. When the umbreon was about to give up, Jen talked to her in a gentle voice. "Umbra… it's useless to try to break that box, it can't be broken. Now, please listen… I'm Jen, your trainer. You remember the human with Sunny and Sparktail? That's me. The mean humans made me a pikachu and now I'm trapped."

The umbreon blinked in confusion and stared at the pikachu, unsure about what to think. She could be saying the truth, but Sparktail was saying the same kind of things and he was crazy. It was probably something common to every pikachu. "My name is Kagai, not Umbra. You are not my human, you are food. What's wrong with all those pikachu thinking they were humans before? It's not possible. I don't know who told you those things, but if I can't eat you, it doesn't matter. I'm going to hunt something else."

Kagai shook her head and turned around to leave again, making Jen panic. There had to be something to convince the umbreon that she was who she claimed to be. If facts didn't work, emotional strikes might have a better chance. "Kagai… I am your human. I'm the one who caught you in the ball. I'm the one who made you feel better. I'm the one who gave you food. Look at the scars on your side… I'm sure you can remember the pain, I'm sure you can remember how I made it go away with the white thing. Only a friend like me would do that… Sparktail was human before. I was too. I saw that machine and I saw humans become pokémon. It's real… and if we don't fight the mean humans, they are going to make us their slaves. You think they are making you hunt because they want to be nice? They only want you to become savage beasts and… oh Arceus!"

Jen took a step back in her box, looking disgusted. Her eyes were staring at muzzles covered in blood, at teeth filled with remains of flesh and organs and at stained claws that had just killed. The eyes of the creatures displayed only hunger and a thirst for destruction. This would have been fine on a famished wild pokémon, but not when she was looking at a vulpix that used to be an innocent child and an eevee that probably wasn't any different. "S-Sunny… what… Kagai! You have to stop this! Look at them… l-look at their eyes… monsters… they are monsters!"

The umbreon glared at Sunny and Oran, wanting to be proud of them for successfully catching a prey, but something sounded wrong. When she saw Oran and Sunny ram the box like she had done previously, even after having been fed, she took the time to look around the room in confusion. Everywhere, pokémon were killing any rodent they could find. At first glance, it looked like they were hunting… but it wasn't. Those pokémon didn't only kill one prey and hid somewhere to eat it, they killed them, shredded them to a mess of flesh and ate very little meat on them before they went to kill something else. It wasn't hunting, it was a murdering fest and the two kits had participated in it like everyone else had. Somehow, Kagai had to believe this pikachu. Not the fact that she was a former humans, not those strange words about knowing her. This pikachu was probably still just crazy. However, she had to admit that something here was wrong. Those edges, that meat, this forest, this urge to kill… it all seemed so fake. Kagai didn't have the intelligence to understand why it was wrong, but the pikachu had planted the seed of doubt in her mind and opened her eyes. "Enough!" the vixen shouted, ramming into the two kits, throwing them of balance. "You had enough food. It's time to go back to our nest."

Frustrated, the kits stared at Kagai and whined. "But… we neeeeeed it! It's soooo good!" They tried to look sad and Oran also tried to nuzzle against her, but Kagai only growled louder and pushed them away. "I said… NO! Go back to the nest!"

Hungry but not wanting to make the larger predator any madder, Sunny and Oran whimpered and ran back into the passage leading to the main habitat. Kagai glanced at the cage and sighed. "You are lucky to be inside this box, chu. You won't be killed today." she said coldly before following after the kits. Jen sat in her plastic prison and looked down. "I would give you any luck I have, Kagai… you need it more than me…"


	6. Fallen Experiments

_Author notes: Here's chapter 6. Before you read it, I want to say something very important. I felt that there was something wrong about last chapter and Kirby, one of my faithful reviewers, confirmed it to me. After rereading the chapter, I concluded that it was indeed wrong for Kagai to completely believe Jen, so I changed a few lines in the last page of the chapter to make it so Kagai only believe that something is wrong with the pokémon and the meat she eats, not that the pikachu is actually her former trainer. Sorry about this, for the 16 persons who read it before I made the change. Now that this is past me, enjoy chapter 6._

**Chapter 6: Fallen Experiments**

Another patch of fur covered in blood. Usually, the more she saw them, the less she cared. A large cut in some flesh and licked by a tongue was another common thing here. But when it was your tongue licking a cut in your fur, it was a whole different matter. Kagai couldn't believe what had happened. It was the seventh day she spent in this room and the fifth since she had decided to limit her intake of meat to a bare minimum. When she was very hungry, she caught one rat from the killing room and brought it back to her nest quickly, away from the horrors there. A small test had revealed that eating the meat from the ceiling made her want more, but that eating a rat calmed down her hunger like it normally should, so she decided to ignore the meat given to her and to eat only the living preys out there. She had tried to stop Oran from eating it too, but he always ignored her warnings. This morning, when she had tried to take the meat away from her, he had done much worse. Instead of ignoring her, he pounced on her in a blind rage and bit her leg. The only reasons why she had survived the savage assault were that she was much bigger and had easily been able to shake him off before running away.

She couldn't believe it… Oran had tried to kill her… only for that meat? This was too much to bear. She didn't want to live here anymore. Her friends were turning against her because she was trying to help them. She had tried to explain that meat making one more hungry and angry was a bad thing, but they were too young to understand and it was now too late for them. They all had reached a state where they stopping being pokémon to become monsters wanting to kill everything that moved. Kagai wouldn't become one of those. All those pokémon, Sunny, Oran… they reminded her of her parents too much. They seemed very nice, but as soon she did something they didn't like, they would try to kill her. Oran had tried to kill her. Sunny would probably try it too if she attempted to take her meat away. For her sanity and her safety, she would have no choice but to do like she had done with her parents and to run away from them. This morning, the repeat of that incident with her parents had touched a sensible cord. When she had evolved and that her father had slashed her side, she had been willing to die to avoid living during the night. Likewise, since there was no way out of here, she would stop eating food until she died, was killed or was thrown out of here. Either way, she wouldn't hang out with those monsters, even if it cost her life. If only Jen could be here again… to pet her, to make her feel better… Even if it was only a short moment, seeing her one last time would be the best thing there could be… Where was she…? Where…

--

"Ten days… it has only been ten days… when will it end?" muttered Jen in her cage as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Each day was more or less of the same. In the morning, she was given some cheap pet food and would refuse to eat half of it. Then, after having been shocked three times by the electric plates hidden inside the bottom of her little plastic cube, they would give up on making her eat anything more. That was the easy part.

During the morning, activities usually revolved around mentally breaking them and making them believe that the pain would stop if they decided to join Team Rocket. Liberman had given up on the third day, which she had expected, since he had been a former employee. Stemper had been stronger and had given up only two days ago. The little dog was broken down by the training and admitted that guarding something wouldn't be that bad. Apparently, it didn't matter to him anymore that they were criminals because they would give him better food and something fun to do, which were pretty much the only things his new body desired. It left only Jen, who had to tell herself every day that this torture was worth it, because it was slowing them down and depriving them of a good recruit that was costing a lot to train, but that brought them nothing.

Speaking of training, that was the activity that filled most of her afternoons. Unlike regular training, where the objective was to make someone stronger, those exercises had for only purpose to make them tired and make it easier to convince them on morning that joining Team Rocket was still the better option. Obstacles were numerous and unfair: metallic plates that would pop up on her running path, turrets shooting regular darts to hurt her, electrified floor… she had stopped counting the traps she met in those rooms. At the end of the day, after another meal she didn't completely eat, she would meet with that woman charged of asking a long series of questions testing her mental abilities and her grasp of reality. Finally, had come her favorite moment: sleep time. It was only in her dreams where she could escape the monotony and pain of her new life. It was also a time filled with the hopes of waking up the next morning with the news that they had given up on her. She would be killed that day, that's for sure, but she would have won her bet. She would have died before they had made her one of them, a traitor to everything standing for good in this world.

Later that night, in a conference room on the last floor of the compound, were reunited the head of the VX project, the head of the DX project and the general to discuss about the latest developments and about the rebels within their experiment groups. Opinions were numerous, but they agreed on one thing: something had to be done. The first to speak was the head of the VX project. "The newest batch of VX is doing wonderful. The latest drug we created has more of a permanent effect on the pokémon. Once ingested a few times in good quantity, this new VX chemical keeps its effects for a few days and pokémon become more dependent it to than ever before. With a few more tweaks to the formula, we will have the perfect tool to have lethal pokémon without spending hours training them. By the end of the year, a few of them should be able to tackle the first mass murder attack led only by pokémon. As you know, by using pokémon, the authorities will have no way of knowing who attacked them, since pokémon are harder to trace back than people. This should give Team Rocket an edge over the government and police forces. However… as you know…"

On the wall projector appeared a live feed of a camera filming Kagai lying down in her corner in the habitat. "…this pokémon rejected the VX chemical. We have observed her since she first refused to eat our meat eight days ago to study the behavior of a pokémon in a state of self-deprivation from the VX chemical. Since we have gathered all the data we needed, Umbra is now useless to us in her current state. We have thought about forcefully injecting her chemical, but we have been warned that a direct injection would kill the pokémon. If we keep her in there, we fear that might try to kill the other experiments to survive and with can't afford casualties. Since we would have to kill her either way, the proposed solution is to proceed to the injection and keeps her if she survives it."

The general gave a faint nod, obviously not concerned with the fate of one pokémon. He then looked at the head of the DX project and waited for his report with more interest. The man started without any further delay, showing a few graphs on the projector as he spoke. "Things aren't that great on our side. Since the incident with Mr. Tortoas, we have received nothing from Mr. Libovski. It would be time to communicate with him again to make sure he still works on the project, despite this little incident. As for the training of the newest recruits, you will be pleased to know that Stemper finally gave up and decided to join us. There was not much of his human mind remaining, according to the latest tests, which lead us to believe once again that the current methods of persuasion aren't still working and that the only way to have someone on our side is to kill their humanity, which negate the point of the project. However, the study of DX-135 has revealed something unusual. She has been resisting our training for 10 days and had shown almost no sign of mental regression. It seems that her strong desire not to join us is keeping her mind away from her instincts. If we could teach our willing recruits about this kind of self-motivation, we might be able to keep our experiments in a good state of mind for more than one month, which would make them the perfect candidates to lead the VX on those attacks. Of course, DX-135 is also useless to us now. She would probably offer some challenge for the VX on the next hunting exercise tomorrow."

The general nodded again, looking at his documents a bit absently. He quickly read a few lines, closed the folder and glanced at the two other men. "You both seem to be overlooking an important detail. DX-135 and Umbra know each other. 135 was the former trainer of Umbra before they were transferred here. The day she had been transformed, she made fun of us. Since then, she refused everything we have offered her. She came here laughing at us, but we will soon be the ones laughing at her. We won't feed her to the VX and we won't make Umbra a VX either. That would be giving them the easy way out. They want to be out of here and probably to see each other again and… you know what? They will have exactly what they want, but they won't have time to enjoy their freedom. The vixen must be so famished at this point that she will make a short meal out of 135 before she can say "Chu" once more. Even if she survives, she will have the feeling to have won over us and will lose her strongest motivation. I don't see her keep her humanity more than a few days. The satisfaction of knowing that this bitch will finally suffer horribly of an ironic fate should be enough to make me forget this failure. I want you two to delete or falsify any information related to 135 and Umbra. Giovanni must not know of this failure. What is said within these walls stays inside, as you know. This meeting is over."

--

There was only one thing Kagai liked about the hunting session: while it happened, everyone left the edged room and she had a relative moment of peace and silence alone. Moments ago, the doors had opened and the pokémon had all rushed out to the hunting room. She would have relaxed, had it not strangely been around midnight and had the doors not been closed behind the pokémon. While it was true that she liked being alone, others were usually not far away and it gave her an instinctual feeling of protection. With the doors closed and everyone out, she lost this protection and the room suddenly seemed too large and empty to her liking.

Fortunately, being a nocturnal pokémon, her ability to see what was around her wasn't impeded by the lack of proper light in the room. This advantage made it possible for her to back away in a corner and to examine her surrounding without fearing a surprise attack. By doing that however, she had opened herself to a long ranged attack. Since nobody would be stupid enough to approach a famished umbreon, she was actually more vulnerable than she thought.

This fact would soon be proven to her. For the first time ever, the rectangle-shaped crack she had found on her first day was opening and allowed three soldiers to enter the empty habitat. Dressed in heavy combat uniforms to protect them from any remaining VX left in the room, the humans searched for their target. Equipped with night vision goggles, they quickly spotted the umbreon cowering in her corner. "There you are, VX… don't worry… it will be almost painless." said the leader of the group while they advanced on Kagai, guns aimed at her chest.

The umbreon's eyes narrowed, the vixen growling defensively at them. She didn't know what those sticks they held were, but she didn't want to be hit by them. The bite wound on her front paw still hurt and wouldn't allow her to pounce on them properly without hurting herself, should they come too close. Still, it wasn't like she couldn't bite their lower paws and make them fall like she has done with the humans who had attacked her the night she evolved. That day, she been taken by surprise and she had had a hard time, but she wouldn't barely win the fight this time, she would crush them.

That said, her plan would have only worked if there had been an actual close-combat fight. Those men weren't there to play games and to go soft on her. Their large sticks made a clicking sound, light sprouted from their end and… suddenly, Kagai didn't feel so much like crushing humans anymore. With one spot of pain on her neck, one on her right front paw and a last one on her chest, the fight had tilted in the favor of the humans. Within seconds, a familiar feeling of drowsiness took over her whole body. Her legs were the first to fall, unable to hold a body seemingly weighting tons. Immobilized, she looked up at the men and whimpered, her throat unable to push a growl out even if she desperately wanted to scare the human away. Finally, her eyes closed reluctantly and her head betrayed her, falling in the grass. Her last thought before falling unconscious was: "Human Jen… why did abandon you me…"


	7. Painful Reunion

_Author Notes: Hello. Before you read this, I must apologize. Not only this chapter is out one day late, but it is shorter than any else I have posted, except maybe the first chapter. However, you will understand later why the chapter is short. I promise that the next one will longer, to compensate._

**Chapter 7: Painful Reunion**

Silence… an almost complete silence. Almost. Her ears were greeted by the loud noise of something snoring and an ambient music that seemed to have returned from a long forgotten past. But other than that… nothing… there was no sound of machinery, no pleading from her roommates, no finger stampeding on a keyboard. The level of electromagnetic waves was also unusual low… or rather, for the first time ever, it wasn't so high that it would hurt even the less sensitive old raichu. For once, the sound department had taken a break and given her some rest. If only the same could have been said about her other senses, it would have been perfect. Her nose was picking up a very strong and disturbing smell and her sense of touch was on red alert because her paws felt restrained by something. Something around was wrong… very wrong.

Alerted by the various signals mashed together inside her head, the female pikachu opened her eyes to get a better view of her unknown new surroundings. The first thing her eyes had fallen on was… a wall of black fur? This couldn't be good. Looking up, she concluded that the wall of fur was at least twice her size. If this was a predator like she thought it was, she would be in deep trouble. She couldn't tell why a predator was suddenly sleeping near her and why she wasn't in her cage, but she knew that it was time to act. No matter the kind of dirty trick that had been played on her, her first priority was to get away from it.

Since her paws were apparently unable to move and that she was too busy moving away from the predator to fix that, she rolled a bit toward the black wall and used the momentum she gained to roll a few feet away from the beast. Stopping at the base of a tree, it took her a few seconds to recover from dizziness, time during which she reminded herself that next time she would roll more slowly. Joke aside; moving a few feet away from the wall did help her body to relax, enough to allow her to use it more freely. However, the definition of freely here was kind of limited. She could make her body do whatever she wanted it to do without being constrained by instincts, but what was there to move when all your paws were apparently unable to do anything? Not much obviously, but this was the problem Jen would focus on solving next.

Looking down at her body, the female pikachu immediately understood why it was so hard to move. Her four paws were effectively tied together with a cord, as was her muzzle, preventing any movement. As far she could tell; the cord was made of thin plastic that wouldn't easily break, under most circumstances. Having asserted the cause of her handicapped movements, she looked up to take a better look at the predator nearby. She had had a fairly good idea of who it might be, but seeing that large scar on the side of what seemed to be a soundly sleeping umbreon left no doubt about the identity of the black creature. It seemed that Kagai had also done something to be sent here. Or maybe Jen was supposed to become food as a punishment for having been rebellious during ten days.

Speaking of this place, it was very different from anything she had seen before in this body, but closer to what she was used to, before all of this had happened. She was surrounded by grass, roots and vegetation, but it didn't seem fake like that pokémon habitat. It wasn't so much that the trees there weren't real, but the way everything had been placed and the presence of walls hadn't fooled her like it would fool a pokémon. The absence of any electronic or mechanical devices and systems confirmed her hypothesis, which was that they were back in a real forest somehow. If this wasn't just another training ground, then they had gotten rid of them… in more than one way. With that cord restraining her, not only she would be dead meat as soon Kagai would wake up, but the umbreon wouldn't feel that great if she ate that plastic stuff.

In this situation, Jen had only one choice. If she wanted to save her life and save her pokémon some bad indigestion or worse, she would have to find a way to free at least her muzzle. Without a mouth, it would be hard to convince Kagai not to eat her or minimally not to eat the plastic band. The least people that would suffer, the best it would be. Removing the plastic band would not be an easy task, however.

Moving her head down again to get a better view of how they had tied her, she sighed. They had done a really good job with her paws. Thanks to the thin and tightly placed band, her paws were too far away from her muzzle to be of any help in pulling that band away. Though, even if she had wanted to do that, the band on her muzzle was also tied to the back of her neck, making any tentative to pull it off rather impossible. The only way to free herself would be to break the band somehow. Fortunately, this was more likely to happen.

Although she doubted that the plastic would break easily, if she could weaken it with either heat or physical hits, it would eventually come off. As a pikachu, she could do both of those easily with her cheeks, which happened to be on both sides of the band, in close range. As she had tried to teach Sparktail, a pikachu charging its cheeks produced a lot of heat around them and this heat could hurt a pikachu that kept charging for too long. The heat would also warm the plastic and make it easier to move, should she keep her cheeks charged. It would burn her fur and leave a black ring around her muzzle for a few days, but any kind of pain was worth it when it was about saving a life, maybe two.

Unlike Sparktail, she had no fear about using her cheeks to defend herself and had done so a few times while she was being trained and forced to eat food she didn't want to eat. As a result, letting the electricity flow in and out of her wasn't harder than telling her body to do as it wanted. Five seconds was the lapse of time it took before her instincts took control and started up the accumulation of electricity. When she entered that state, her body became like a magnet attracting any free electron around. Those electrons were accumulated in special pockets of flesh all around her body and distributed to her huge cheeks pockets when she needed to charge them. Of course, her goal here wasn't to charge her cheeks until they burned out, but to keep a constant flow of heat brushing the band. Once she reached a good compromise between the pain and the heat level, she diverted a part of the energy back to her tail for a constant release… then she waited.

The next minutes had been slow, so much that Jen wondered if this waiting game was so much of a good idea. The girl was usually very patient, but pikachu bodies weren't made for immobility. There was that part of her wanting to shock that band quickly to be done with it, but if she had done that, all her efforts to heat the band would have gone to waste. She had to keep doing that until it wasn't possible to make the band any warmer, which she would know when the biting pain around her muzzle would stop to increase. Either that… or if the umbreon decided to wake up before Jen was done. Most unfortunately for Jen, the black vixen chose to have her breakfast earlier that day.

With the effects of the tranquilizers slowly wearing off, the umbreon became more aware of the world around her. To the hungry predator, the delectable scents of the rodent and her burnt fur was like an invitation to eat in a buffet. She could hardly have refused that. It was with a growling stomach that the beast gave the first signal of her newfound awareness. This was followed by stretching her paws tiredly and opening her eyes groggily, eyes that wasted no time to stare at Jen with ravenous hunger. The perfect meal she had longed for so long, it was right in front of her and waiting to be eaten. "Ohhh… that's different… and much better than a small rat…"

The sudden movements had made Jen nervous, but the voice turned on the alarm signal. There was no more time for subtlety. She had to break that band, here and now. And she would have only one chance to do it right. Closing her eyes, she focused on diverting every electron around her body again, but this time, making them all head to her cheeks. The accumulation of outside energy accelerated and pushed more into the fragile cheeks pouches. The number of sparks seen outside her cheeks doubled and tripled, but it was nothing compared to the pain growing on her face. The combination of the heated plastic, the burnt fur and the sheer pain of holding that much and wanting more was taking a toll on her. Her body was going limp from the pain, but she had to go on… she had to give her best.

However, the umbreon wasn't stupid enough to attack the electric mouse while it was charging its cheeks. She knew from experience with Sparky that they couldn't do it two times in a row and that if she wanted to pounce, the best time would be right after the energy was released. With this in mind, she moved back on her paws and took a few steps back to wait for her meal to cook itself, as one would say. Judging by the strain on its face, it shouldn't take too long…

…and when Jen couldn't hold it anymore, when the pain was threatening to bring her down with it, she released it with quite a bam. Targeting the left side of band, which seemed to have been heated more, a few amps of electricity flew through it and back into her body through a special low resistance channel to be released almost painlessly by her tail. A charge that high could easily have killed a human many times and Kagai could have been rendered unconscious with something so strong. Had Jen let her instincts choose the target, Kagai would have been neutralized and maybe dead, but Jen valued Kagai's life over hers and would never have done that. The plastic band didn't have that luck. On the spot struck by the discharge, a huge gaping hole remained, the band holding only by a thread. It wasn't completely broken, but this would have to do. Moving her head up and down and struggling to open her muzzle, she desperately tried to break free of her prison.

Kagai wasted no time on her side. As soon the last spark had been shot out, the dinner bell had rung. Crouching down, she gave a quick glare into the rodent's eyes. They were looking back at her and filled with fear and despair. Even if Jen had taught her compassion, that was a sight that instinctively made her laugh inside and filled her with joy. The little prey was trapped and it knew it. It had no way to escape and its death was at her claws. She had won the hunt game and her prize was waiting on a silver platter, ready to be devoured. If Jen was there, she would be so proud of her successful hunt. Every mother would be proud of their child when they finally succeeded in something that mattered. She had failed on eating Sparktail because of a lucky shot, she had failed to eat that pikachu claiming to be Jen because of that annoying box, but now… there was nothing standing between her and absolute victory, was it? There were only a few feet remaining and those melted like an ice cube in the sun when her tensed muscles released and her body sprung forward.

This time, her claws didn't hit dirt or hard plastic, but soft fur. She could feel her sharp claws slide into the tasty flesh, sense the scent of blood tickling her nose, taste the…

"Kagai! Stop!!"


	8. Eternal Bond

_Author Note: Here's the last chapter of this little story. Yeah… it's already the en__d. This chapter isn't too long, but… bah… I think I will go sit in a corner and wonder what to do with the last chapters of Sparking Chaos... keep them… rewrite them… throw them away… (sigh)… enjoy the last chapter. It had been a fun little thing to write.  
_

**Chapter 8: Eternal Bond**

"Kagai! Stop!!"

The words echoed in Kagai's head for a long time, the pokémon remaining still as she tried to understand what was happening. Her teeth had sunk into the pikachu's skin and her body was shaking at the thought of having to stop when being so close to crushing her prey. Drops of blood were forcing their way through the small gaps between cold white knifes and warm flesh, sliding down between strings of fur as tears rolling down a face. They made a red trails on the yellow fur, joining together in the grass in a small puddle of life.

Despite the loss, this life Kagai was about to take away in her desperate need for survival didn't want to lose so easily. The pikachu eye's were looking down at holes in her skin and crying along with her body. It was a silent plead, a moment where no word could have been used to explain how Jen was feeling. Her muzzle had been freed of the band and the words she had wanted to shout had been spoken, but now time had come to a stop. Both creatures were looking at their rival, wondering what had gone wrong.

To Kagai, this voice had felt strangely familiar and made her feel uncomfortable. Now free of the distortions caused by the box, that voice was pure and held a message that went much farther than the words themselves. It had felt like if her mother was behind her once again and teaching her a lesson. She couldn't disobey such a voice… but she had no reason to obey either. Her prey was there, under her and she was already clawing into it. Why stop when she was so close to feasting on her prey?

Jen was looking at the situation from another angle. Her body was mutilated and Kagai already had already begun her meal. The cuts were still small, but the gap between a light and a fatal injury was about one tenth of an inch. If Kagai was to move just a little more... she would be dead. This raised an interesting dilemma in her head: did she really want to stop Kagai from doing it? Even if there was no personal advantage to being dead, it was hard for her not to be emotionally touched by the eyes of the large predator. The umbreon wasn't only hungry, she was desperate for food. It wasn't the crazy lust for murder she had seen in the monster Sunny had become, but something more subtle, almost soothing. Every bits of confusion emanating from the way Kagai was looking at her felt like a plead for her life, as if her whole existence depended on eating this meal. They were the eyes of child looking at its mother for the milk only she could provide, waiting for her need to be recognized.

The female pikachu was no mother and the umbreon was far from being a child, but the deep bond between a trainer and her pokemon wasn't that different. Deeply, Jen cared about all her pokemon as if they were her own child, as if her happiness depended on their well being and their healthy growth. When one of her pokemon had been sick or hurt, she had been to their side until she couldn't provide the care herself. When they lacked food, she had let her body starve so her pokemon would have a little something to eat and stay happy. Today, she was in no state to provide any care, but she could still save her pokemon by making yet another sacrifice. Then again, maybe there was another solution… Maybe she could rise and find another source of food to feed Kagai. But they found none... they would be back to step one and Kagai would only be hungrier and weaker.

After she stared a last time at those eyes in hope to get a last brim of an answer, the former trainer closed her eyes and sighed. She couldn't take that chance. Kagai needed to be saved now, not later. It wasn't a matter of instinct or logic anymore, but of friendship. If she had to die in any way, giving her life to a pokemon was by far the ideal death. She would at least leave this world with the feeling of having done something good. She was born a good person... she would die as one. "Forget... forget I said anything, Kagai. Go ahead and... kill me. But..."

Her eyes opened again to stare at Kagai softly. They not filled with fear or sorrows, they were... peaceful. "But... but never forget about the human Jen who saved you. Never forget what she did... never forget about the food and the care she gave you. If you can eat me today, it's only because of her. Savor this meat today... it will be the last meal human Jen will give you. You are on your own now. I'm... I'm sure that you will be a good umbreon." Again, her eyes closed and waited for the end.

During another endless moment of silence, Kagai looked up at the sky, expecting to see her trainer hiding somewhere and waiting for the moment to congratulate her, but there was nothing. Her trainer wasn't behind those trees and those bush, she wasn't in the sky and the clouds and neither would she be under the water or the ground. But after hearing those words so inexplicably meaningful coming from this random pikachu who apparently knew her trainer, she knew that Jen would always be inside of her, in her heart and her memories. Her trainer had removed the pain and gave her a second chance at life. She would never forgive her... never...

Looking down at her prey, that cold predatory glare returned to her muzzle. It wasn't time to think, but to eat. With a quick motion of her jaws, her teeth sunk into the flesh again, the blood flooded plenty on her tongue as she worked on crushing the pikachu's bone and organs. A large burst of pain surged into Jen's brain, the price for her sacrifice. Then... it all ceased. Her heart fatigued itself from pumping blood that went to waste, her brain shut down from deprivation of oxygen and her body went limp. Jennifer "Softpaw" Sutter was no more.

--

Crack! In a split second, the neck of the rattata was twisted and the small purple rodent died. It went quickly, without any pain or any scream; that was how Kagai liked her preys. It was late in the evening and the sun had vanished behind the mountain, making it easy for the predator to track her blind preys. Once again, it was the beginning of another night for the nocturnal pokemon. Since she had escaped that bad place, a few seasons ago, she had rarely seen the light of the sun, preferring by far the reflected light of the moon. This light didn't hurt her like the sun did in its worse moments, but rather gently warmed her fur and tickled it funnily. The umbreon was actually quite sad on those nights where the moon went into hiding and forced her to have a bad night.

This night wasn't one of those, fortunately. The moon was shining plenty and she had captured an early prey, which was almost everything she needed to be happy. From the young and inexperienced umbron had grown a formidable predator, feared by the rodents of all kind. This territory was her playground and those rodents her toys. There was nothing truly like finding a rattata nest or catching one of those pikachu from the nearby colony. Attacking this colony was always a fun challenge. She had tried to attack it directly long and it nearly got her killed. Those pikachu were actually organized like nothing she had seen before and their leader was a fearsome opponent. He wasn't very strong, but his brilliant attacks strategies had forced her to come up with better plans each time to catch one pikachu. She had learned that as long she didn't attack them often and had a few nests where to hide, the pikachu wouldn't mind her presence much. As to why, she would probably never know, not that she actually cared. Her first priority wasn't those pikachu.

"Jenee! Mommy's bringing you food!" the black pokemon shouted as she came near a small cave. From it came out an excited little female eevee, her real first priority. Two seasons ago, she met with a male Jolteon who was walking around during mating season. The magic of that time of the year did its work and she found herself with an eevee to care for. Jenee was named in honor of the human who had helped her, so long ago. As for the Jolteon, as soon Kagai had given birth, that the kit was safe and that Kagai was able to protect her by herself, he left to find another female to mate with. This didn't really bother Kagai, who had found her happiness in that child and couldn't have cared less about having a male around. The eevee was in good health and would be raised properly, making up for Kagai's ruined childhood.

Sitting at the entrance of the cave, the vixen watched Jenee eat while her keeping her front paws busy with the toy her daughter had been playing with. It was a long string of white plastic punctured and town by many games with time. When she killed that mouse, that hard thing had remained and didn't taste good, so she hadn't eaten it. Instead, she had kept it and guarded it jealously. The pikachu's scent on it had been so similar to her trainer's that she had to keep it. The scent was long gone, but it remained a nice chew toy. Each time she would think about her trainer and feel bad, a few bites on it would usually sooth her mind. It didn't really make sense, but what did in this world? She had seen her friend turn into a beast, her potential mate had tried to kill her, her trainer had vanished into the wild, she had seen a pikachu knowing about her trainer and was living near a male pikachu who did things that had nothing to do with being a pokemon. If anybody asked her opinion on this, she would just keep biting her plastic band. At least, this band had done something good for her. It had trapped the pokemon whom meat had given her strength back. She wouldn't be any weirder than everything around her if she kept a lucky charm with her, would she?


End file.
